Tech rush sees North Sydney shaping as city’s “CBD North”

North Sydney could become the city’s “CBD North” as major tech, media and telecommunications businesses move out of the city centre, new data has revealed.

Commercial property agency JLL says key businesses in the tech, media and telecom industries – including Nine Network, Vodafone and Microsoft – have pre-committed to new and refurbished developments in the precinct since 2016, making it a fast-growing hub for the sector.

“Nine Network and Microsoft are moving into North Sydney from outside the market. These two pillars of the entertainment and IT industries bode positively for future groups to relocate to the market and see North Sydney regain its mantle as a media and tech hub,” JLL’s head of Northern Sydney office leasing Paul Lynch says.

With a substantial number of major companies choosing to decentralise to North Sydney, JLL’s NSW head of office leasing Dan Kernaghan predicts the area could become an extension of the city’s CBD.

Changes to the workplace brought on by COVID-19 could also lead to more companies reconsidering their CBD location and traditional office model for alternative approaches, such as the “hub and spoke” model.

“This hub and spoke model could be likened to an urban and suburban office solution, where a hub office is located in CBD areas and a spoke office is located in suburban areas, closer to where the employees live,” Kernaghan says.

“If we see more adoption of this split office accommodation strategy, that could also see growth for the North Sydney office precinct, leading to an extension of the Sydney CBD to ‘CBD North’.”